Opinion

A fundamentally flawed judgement regarding the Cauvery water dispute, reflecting ignorance of a crucial concept, has been accepted without question, by our finest legal minds, reporters and other stakeholders, writes Prithwiraj Mukherjee in Mint. "A technically sound analysis would account for Karnataka's total water holding, and then consider how much water must be released to Tamil Nadu. Tmc (thousand million cu. ft) is commonly used as a volume unit here. If a flow rate of 6,000 cusec (L3/T) were maintained for 10 days, i.e., 864,000 seconds (T), the total volume (L3) of water released would be 5184,000,000 ft3, or 5.184 tmc. But cusec and tmc are not interchangeable units, as they are dimensionally different. Thus, it may be important to pedal back to basic physics, compare apples with apples, and hope that our crucial decisions are taken after a proper understanding of dimensions," he writes.

The opinion polls suggest that whites will vote for Donald Trump in the same proportion as they did for Reagan in 1964. Is that even probable, let alone likely, asks Surjit S Bhalla in The Indian Express. "One explanation is that it is in everyone's interest to show that the race is too close to call. The TV networks ring in the profits — the whole globalised world is clued in. Political websites never had it so good. Why upset the profit-cart? Democrats prefer an ex-ante close race for a high turnout. If it looks like a landslide, won't Democrats just stay home on voting day? The Trump camp prefer a close race to help with funding. And the pollsters? After being caught by circumstances (Brexit and Trump) they are playing it safe, erring heavily on the side of caution, since nothing is gained by being an "outlier" at this early stage," he says.

The slogan 'one country, one election' overlooks the existence of 29 States... The intention, it seems, is to move the country towards becoming a unitary state, say Jagdeep S Chhokar and Sanjay Kumar in The Hindu. "While there are various ifs and buts before this may be finally implemented — including the feasibility of constitutional amendments of the kind which this may require, State governments agreeing to the untimely dissolution of the Assemblies, the question of what happens if a government falls without completing its term, and several such issues — if simultaneous elections were to become a reality, it would go against the political diversity which is essential for addressing the social diversity of India," they wrote.